Conventional garment articles, such as disposable diapers and other disposable absorbent articles, have typically employed adhesive or mechanical fasteners which attach appointed waistband sections of the articles around a wearer. In addition, various configurations of waist elastics, leg elastics, elasticized liners, and elasticized outercovers have been employed on garment articles to help produce and maintain the fit of the articles about the body contours of the wearer.
Other conventional absorbent garments have included folded pleats in the outercover. The pleats are arranged to expand open as the garment absorbs liquids.
The external surfaces of such disposable absorbent products may include a nonwoven fibrous material or a matte-finished film material. In some arrangements, pattern embossments have been formed into outer surface of the outercover to provide a decorative pattern.
Still other disposable garments have incorporated an absorbent composite jointed to an outercover composed of elastomeric materials, such as elastomeric, stretch-bonded-laminate materials. Such materials have included a layer meltblown elastomeric fibers which has been stretched and sandwiched between facing layers composed of a polypropylene spunbond nonwoven fabric. The meltblown layer has typically been pattern-bonded to the facing layers with thermal bonds, sonic bonds and/or adhesive bonds.
Conventional garment articles, such as those described above, have not provided desired levels of fit, absorbency, resistance to leakage, low cost and ease of manufacture. As a result, there has been a continued need for garments having improvements in such properties.